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Oscar Lachman
Oscar Lachman (born April 18th, 2021) was the 56th President of the United States, serving from January 20th, 2081 to January 20th, 2089. President Lachman is widely remembered for the mass deportations of the 2080s. Prior to his presidency, he served as the 51st Governor of Colorado. Lachman's business connections led him to become a powerful figure in the Conservative Party, which at the time, had never taken the Presidency. He was persuaded to seek the Colorado governorship after delivering the commencement speech for the 2072 Conservative Party Convention, winning two years later and again in 2078. He was defeated in his run for the Conservative presidential nomination in 2076, but won both the nomination and general election in 2080, defeating incumbent Horace Fadel. As president, Lachman implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. He advocated reversing the "Open Door" immigration policy and deporting all undesirable non-citizens, issuing national ID cards to streamline government services, and deregulating the economy to spur economic growth. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line against migrant labor unions, announced a new War on Crime, and negotiated an immigration compromise with colonial leaders that insured the mass colonization of Mars. He was re-elected in a landslide in 2084, leading the Conservative coalition to a majority in both houses of Congress. His second term was primarily marked implementing the immigration reforms passed in his first term. National ID cards issued over the previous four years were used to relocate millions of resident aliens in the Southwest to Mexico, though almost half of the deportees opted to move to the colonies and gain full citizenship. Lachman's policies were reviled in the Southwest, and US Army and National Guard forces had to be deployed to manage the deportations; however, in the rest of the country, the Deportations were hugely popular, as it freed up the economy and sparked job growth. Since leaving office in 2089, Lachman's popularity has largely declined. Lachman's economic recovery faded by the early 2090s, and the economy continued to decline throughout the end of the 21st century and well into the 22nd. The Second Mexican-American War was largely seen as the result of Lachman's deportation policies. He was killed by Mexican sympathizers during the Third Mexican-American War in 2136. Presidency Deportations President Lachman's most enduring policy was closing of American borders, and the resettlement/deportation of "undesirable" non-citizens. The overwhelming majority of these people were Mexican laborers living in the Soutwest, some for the majority of their lives. While this policy was supported by a majority of the country, in the colonies, and in the Southwest it was extremely unpopular. Leaders of the Mars Corporation and other colonial NGOs met with Lachman and Congressional leaders to negotiate a compromise with the Immigration Reform Bill that would ensure the free flow of colonists to Mars, now that its population cap had been removed. Lachman and the leadership agreed to a compromise in the form of an amendment proposed by Congresswoman Elia Rosalind, that established the right of deportees to opt for resettlement on Mars in exchange for full citizenship. The Amendment also kept the door for immigrants open, so long as they were immigrating to Mars. This compromise ended the brewing Martian Revolution, and ensured the peaceful colonization of Mars. Lachman also worked closely with Mexico to engineer a stable relocation of Mexican expatriates in the US back to Mexico. Turkish Collapse With the collapse of Turkey near the end of his second Term, Lachman worked to contain the Intermarium invasion of the Caucuses, while supporting their claim to stop the Third Armenian Genocide by Azerbaijan. Tensions between Poland and the US were higher than they had been in decades, and as the war spread to every other Caucasian state, President Lachman worked to try to persuade Polish leaders to scale back the war. Energy Crisis